An Asylum for Writers of Speculative Fiction

Title: Dark Tales of Randamor the Recluse - Book I: The Invisible Chains
Author: eurypon
Format: Novel - Original characters
Length: Chapter: 9 684 words - Total: 375 077 words (July 12th, 2010)
Status: WIP
Rating: NC-17 - M - M/M Slash
Warnings: Violence, incest, rape, non-con, domination may all occur in varying degrees

Chapter 46: The Previous War

Guess who will be very surprised (more than once)?

Lee-Lack Scarminckle investigates the place where the horses were stolen. Anaxantis arrives at the base camp near Dermolhea and gets a surprising invitation. Tarno daydreams. Lee-Lack Scarminckle reconnects with his gang at their hideout in the Pashira Forest. Anaxantis attends a ball organized by the ladies of the Dermolhean Forty where he receives unsettling news. Tenaxos learns that his son has brushed aside his royal charter and is going to war. Volcko of Iramid and his regiment have lost their way. Timishi explains some things to Anaxantis, who understands now what the war is all about.

Link: Ximerion

What if is perhaps the question at the heart of speculative fiction, but when it comes to "Alternative History" there's no doubt about it. These stories ask what the world would be like if some key historical event had turned out differently or never happened at all.

From Joan Aiken's "Wolves" series - "what if James II had never been deposed in the Glorious Revolution" to Robert Harris's Fatherland - What if Nazi Germany had won the Second World War (this is perhaps the most common premise today) all these stories have a point of divergence where things change from real world history.

This is a genre that requires intense research into the real history and how it might have ended differently...

I didn't explain that very well Here's wikipedia on the matter and if anyone wants to explain more please feel free.

And now a plot bunny/prompt for anyone who wants to run with it.

So many people write stories where Nazi Germany won the second world war. Even stories that take Adolf Hitler out of the picture do this...

But I want to take a different tack - suppose Hitler never gets into politics (or not at the point he did in the real world, maybe later if you want to be really twisted) because he's a slightly better painter than he was and he gets into Art School in Vienna. Add to this that a second turning point where the Bavarian Soviet Republic survives more than a few days and takes over Germany in 1919...

There's the basis of a whole other universe for you. Anyone want to run with it?